EVEN though Jeremy Corbyn cannot be held personally responsible for the repugnant anti-Semitic views expressed by some Labour members, supporters or affiliates, he is accountable for the weakness of his leadership on this issue.

He’s delayed and dithered when he should have been stated, as a lifelong campaigner against racism, that any person found to have made offensive comments against the Jewish community would be automatically expelled from the Labour Party.

It’s what he would expect of Theresa May if this controversy was engulfing the Tories. It’s not and Mr Corbyn’s inaction is reflecting extremely poorly on his judgement – and the grip that Momentum activists have on the party after days of misgivings over his key supporter Christine Shawcroft’s place on the party’s National Executive Committee before she quit.

Yet it’s actually worse than this. It’s now claimed that 12 senior staff working for Mr Corbyn, and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, were members of social media groups containing anti-Semitic and violent comments. These are people who will be in line to become Downing Street aides if Labour wins the next election.

And, with prominent Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger, and others, feeling the need to go to the police over the abuse they have received, and party donor Sir David Garrard quitting Labour for failing to respond to “the most blatant acts of anti-Semitism”, Mr Corbyn can’t remain in denial over this escalating crisis. After all, he’s not the leader of an university debating society – he’s supposedly in charge of a government-in-waiting.